Product description

When pirates attack a cargo ship off the Somalian coast and one of them is found to be a British-born Pakistani, alarm bells start ringing at London's Thames House. MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is brought in to establish how and why a young British Muslim could go missing from his well-to-do family in Birmingham and end up on board a pirate skiff in the Indian Ocean, armed with a Kalashnikov. After an undercover operative connected to the case turns up dead in the shipping office of an NGO in Athens it looks like piracy may be the least of the Service's problems. Liz and her team must unravel the connections between Pakistan, Greece and Somalia,relying on their wits - and the judicious use of force - to get to the truth.And they don't have long, as trouble is brewing closer to home: the kind of explosive trouble that MI5 could do without ...Stella Rimington, former Director General of MI5, returns with a tense and heart-stopping spy thriller where the stakes are high and the enemy is always just out of sight.

Author information

Dame Stella Rimington joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1968. During her career she worked in all the main fields of the Service: counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. She was appointed Director General in 1992, the first woman to hold the post. She has written her autobiography and six Liz Carlyle novels. She lives in London and Norfolk.

Review quote

This is something rare: the spy novel that prizes authenticity over fabrication, that is true to the character and spirit of intelligence work Mail on Sunday Rip Tide marks a step forward as her first fully international thriller Sunday Times A real slow burner ... Rimington's attention to detail is second to none Sunday Herald The details of how MI5 conducts its business are fascinating ... Stella establishes a cracking pace and keeps you guessing right up until the end Sunday Express For a pacy page-turner, she's a safe bet ... Rimington is particularly strong in her accounts of procedure, unsurprisingly, given her past role as Head of MI5 Independent Liz Carlyle is an MI5 agent with the traditional thriller-heroine mix of dysfunctional personal life and steely ambition Daily Telegraph She uses her knowledge of covert spy operations to create powerful story lines that are exciting yet plausible Daily Express